About

Lyon, Rhone, France

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The Basilica of Saint-Martin d'Ainay is a Romanesque church in Ainay in the Presqu'ile district in the historic centre of Lyon, FranceLegendary origins of a remarkably large church, which may once have stood on this site, are noted by Gregory of Tours and may be connected to the account of Eusebius, in his Historia Ecclesiae, of the martyrdom of Blandina, the young girl among 48 Christians fed to lions by the Romans in 177 in Lyon's amphitheatre.

The lions refused to eat her, according to Eusebius: she and the others were martyred nevertheless. Their bones were burnt, thrown into the river, and washed up downstream where the surviving Christians of the community buried them secretly beneath the altar of what Gregory calls a "basilica of remarkable magnitude."